South Indian Home remedies

Across all geographies, based on their environment and access to fruits, greens, vegetables, spices and ingredients, every culture has its ancestors figuring out some home remedies. I love collating these and this post is dedicated to specifically those remedies from South India.

  1. Juice of Bermuda grass (Arugampullu) 1/4 oz every day helps build immunity in the body
  2. Burn turmeric root (raw) and mix the soot with honey and eat it. Cures Hiccups
    • Placing a pinch of sugar under the tongue is a local American cure – Interesting!
  3. One tablespoon ginger juice, mix it with hot water and drinking it helps remove phlegm and clears lungs
    • Ginger tea is a prevalent across the world for the same – Removing phlegm and curing nasal blockages – Nice!
  4. Eating gooseberry regularly helps retain the dark color hair (gray hair reduces)
    • In Indian hair oils, gooseberry is usually added – makes sense now 🙂
  5. Having Cardamom powder mixed with ghee on an empty stomach morning and evening, helps reduce chest phlegm
  6. Applying equal quantities of tamarind and salt to the tongue (pinch or equivalent) helps cure tonsils
    • When kids suffer from tonsils or sore throat or strep throat, standard food is mashed rice and lentils with Rasam (made of tamarind and salt) – makes sense!
  7. Dry roast cloves and after it cools, chewing and eating 4-5 pieces of it, helps reduce throat infections
  8. Mix 1 cup curd/yoghurt with 3 cups water and add salt and squeeze a lemon in it. Drinking this version of buttermilk helps reduce blood pressure
  9. Mash 3-4 cloves of garlic pods with salt. Applying this mixture on a sprain (feet or ankles or anywhere on the body) helps speedy recovery
    • Have seen red soil mixed with lemon and calcium carbonate (Sunnambu) mixture heal sprains and hair line fractures.
  10. Mix freshly ground black pepper pods (1-2) with hot milk and drink it. Helps reduce cough
    • Mixing some dry ginger powder (1-2 pinches) helps reduce cough with chest phlegm

Interesting to see how home remedies passed on across generations in specific cultures seem to be similar to those across geographies as well 🙂

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